Search results for: health care systems

Authors: Cheng-En Tsai, Chung-Chun Hsiao, Fu-Yuan Chang, Liang-Lun Lan, Jia-Ying Tu

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New design of three dimensional (3D) flywheel system based on gimbal and gyro mechanics is proposed. The 3D flywheel device utilizes the rotational motion of three spherical shells and the conservation of angular momentum to achieve planar locomotion. Actuators mounted to the ring-shape frames are installed within the system to drive the spherical shells to rotate, for the purpose of steering and stabilization. Similar to the design of 2D flywheel system, it is expected that the spherical shells may function like a “flyball” to store and supply mechanical energy; additionally, in comparison with typical single-wheel and spherical robots, the 3D flywheel can be used for developing omnidirectional robotic systems with better mobility. The Lagrangian method is applied to derive the equation of motion of the 3D flywheel system, and simulation studies are presented to verify the proposed design.

Keywords: Gimbal, spherical robot, gyroscope, Lagrangian formulation, flyball

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Authors: T. Ahilan, V. Aswin Adityan, S. Kailash

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UAV’s are small remote operated or automated aerial surveillance systems without a human pilot aboard. UAV’s generally finds its use in military and special operation application, a recent growing trend in UAV’s finds its application in several civil and non military works such as inspection of power or pipelines. The objective of this paper is the augmentation of a UAV in order to replace the existing expensive sonar (sound navigation and ranging) based equipment amongst small scale fisherman, for whom access to sonar equipment are restricted due to limited economic resources. The surveillance equipment’s present in the UAV will relay data and GPS location onto a receiver on the fishing boat using RF signals, using which the location of the schools of fishes can be found. In addition to this, an emergency beacon system is present for rescue operations and drone recovery.

Keywords: UAV, Surveillance, RF signals, fishing, sonar, GPS, video stream, school of fish

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Authors: Soleen Karim, Meira Yasin, Rezhin Qader

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Children’s books present a colorful life for kids around the world, their current environment or what they could potentially have- a home, two loving parents, a playground, and a safe school within a short walk or bus ride. These images are only pages in a donated book for children displaced by war. The environment they live in is significantly different. Displaced children are faced with a temporary life style filled with fear and uncertainty. Children of war associate various structural institutions with a trauma and cannot enter the space, even if it is for their own future development, such as a school. This paper is a collaborative effort with students of the Kennesaw State University architecture department, architectural designers and a mental health professional to address and link the design challenges and the psychological trauma for children of war. The research process consists of a) interviews with former refugees, b) interviews with current refugee children, c) personal understanding of space through one’s own childhood, d) literature review of tested design methods to address various traumas. Conclusion: In addressing the built environment for children of war, it is necessary to address mental health and well being through the creation of space that is sensitive to the needs of children. This is achieved by understanding critical design cues to evoke normalcy and safe space through program organization, color, and symbiosis of synthetic and natural environments. By involving the children suffering from trauma in the design process, aspects of the design are directly enhanced to serve the occupant. Neglecting to involve the participants creates a nonlinear design outcome and does not serve the needs of the occupant to afford them equal opportunity learning and growth experience as other children around the world.

Keywords: activist architecture, childhood education, childhood psychology, adverse childhood experiences

Procedia PDF Downloads 125

Authors: Setareh Yousife

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Introduction: Studies suggest that Extramarital Infidelity (EMI) variants, such as sexual and emotional infidelities are increasing in marriage relationships. To our knowledge, less is known about what therapies and mental-hygiene factors can prevent more effective this behavior and address it. Spiritual and cognitive-behavioural health have proven to reduce marital conflict, Increase marital satisfaction and commitment. Objective: This study aims to discuss the effectiveness of spiritual counseling combined with Cognitive-behavioural techniques in addressing Extramarital Infidelity. Method: Descriptive, analytical, and intervention articles indexed in SID, Noormags, Scopus, Iranmedex, Web of Science and PubMed databases, and Google Scholar were searched. We focused on Studies in which Women with extramarital relationships, including heterosexual married couples-only studies and spirituality/religion and CBT as coping techniques used as EMI therapy. Finally, the full text of all eligible articles was prepared and discussed in this review. Results: 25 publications were identified, and their textual analysis facilitated through four thematic approaches: The nature of EMI in Women, the meaning of spirituality in the context of mental health and human behavior as well as psychotherapy; Spirituality integrated into Cognitive-Behavioral approach, The role of Spirituality as a deterrent to EMI. Conclusions: The integration of the findings discussed herein suggests that the application of cognitive and behavioral skills in addressing these kinds of destructive family-based relationships is inevitable. As treatments based on religion/spirituality or cognition/behavior do not seem adequately effective in dealing with EMI, the combination of these approaches may lead to higher efficacy in fewer sessions and a shorter time.

Keywords: spirituality, religion, cognitive behavioral therapy, extramarital relation, infidelity

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Authors: Nadaniela Egidi, Pierluigi Maponi

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The approximate solution of a time-harmonic electromagnetic scattering problem for inhomogeneous media is required in several application contexts, and its two-dimensional formulation is a Fredholm integral equation of the second kind. This integral equation provides a formulation for the direct scattering problem, but it has to be solved several times also in the numerical solution of the corresponding inverse scattering problem. The discretization of this Fredholm equation produces large and dense linear systems that are usually solved by iterative methods. In order to improve the efficiency of these iterative methods, we use the Symmetric SOR preconditioning, and we propose an algorithm for the evaluation of the associated relaxation parameter. We show the efficiency of the proposed algorithm by several numerical experiments, where we use two Krylov subspace methods, i.e., Bi-CGSTAB and GMRES.

Keywords: Fredholm integral equation, iterative method, preconditioning, scattering problem

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Authors: Riku Hayashida, Tomoaki Hashimoto

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This paper provides a robust stabilization method for rotational motion of underwater robots against parameter uncertainties. Underwater robots are expected to be used for various work assignments. The large variety of applications of underwater robots motivates researchers to develop control systems and technologies for underwater robots. Several control methods have been proposed so far for the stabilization of nominal system model of underwater robots with no parameter uncertainty. Parameter uncertainties are considered to be obstacles in implementation of the such nominal control methods for underwater robots. The objective of this study is to establish a robust stabilization method for rotational motion of underwater robots against parameter uncertainties. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by numerical simulations.

Keywords: robust control, stabilization method, underwater robot, parameter uncertainty

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Authors: Almagul Assainova , Dariya Abykenova, Liudmila Goncharenko, Sergey Sybachin, Saule Rakhimova, Abay Aman

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The recognition of a handwritten Kazakh text is a relevant objective today for the digitization of materials. The study presents a model of a hybrid neural network for handwriting recognition, which includes a convolutional neural network and a multi-layer perceptron. Each network includes 1024 input neurons and 42 output neurons. The model is implemented in the program, written in the Python programming language using the EMNIST database, NumPy, Keras, and Tensorflow modules. The neural network training of such specific letters of the Kazakh alphabet as ә, ғ, қ, ң, ө, ұ, ү, h, і was conducted. The neural network model and the program created on its basis can be used in electronic document management systems to digitize the Kazakh text.

Keywords: handwriting recognition system, image recognition, Kazakh font, machine learning, neural networks

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Authors: Abdul Amir Hazbavi

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The present study is an attempt to provide a relatively comprehensive preview of the Iranian English translators’ perception on Machine Translation. Furthermore, the study tries to shed light on the status of implementation of Machine Translation among the Iranian English Translators. To reach the aforementioned objectives, the Localization Industry Standards Association’s questioner for measuring perceptions with regard to the adoption of a technology innovation was adapted and used to investigate three parameter among the participants of the study, namely familiarity with Machine Translation, general perception on Machine Translation and implementation of Machine Translation systems in translation tasks. The participants of the study were 224 last-year undergraduate Iranian students of English translation at 10 universities across the country. The study revealed a very low level of adoption and a very high level of willingness to get familiar with and learn about Machine Translation, as well as a positive perception of and attitude toward Machine Translation by the Iranian English translators.

Keywords: translation technology, machine translation, perception, implementation

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Authors: Muhammad Shoaib, Hassan M. Al-Swaidan

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Air pollution has been a major challenge for the scientists today, due to the release of toxic emissions from various industries like power plants, desalination plants, industrial processes and transportation vehicles. Harmful emissions into the air represent an environmental pressure that reflects negatively on human health and productivity, thus leading to a real loss in the national economy. Variety of air pollutants in the form of carbon oxides, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, suspended particulate material etc. are present in air due to the combustion of different types of fuels like crude oil, diesel oil and natural gas. Among various pollutants, NOx and SOx emissions are considered as highly toxic due to its carcinogenicity and its relation with various health disorders. In Kingdom of Saudi Arabia electricity is generated by burning of crude, diesel or natural gas in the turbines of electricity stations. Out of these three, crude oil is used extensively for electricity generation. Due to the burning of the crude oil there are heavy contents of gaseous pollutants like sulfur dioxides (SOx) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), gases which are ultimately discharged in to the environment and is a serious environmental threat. The breakthrough point in case of lab studies using 1 gm of sliced activated carbon adsorbant comes after 20 and 30 minutes for NOx and SOx, respectively, whereas in case of PP8 plant breakthrough point comes in seconds. The saturation point in case of lab studies comes after 100 and 120 minutes and for actual PP8 plant it comes after 60 and 90 minutes for NOx and SOx adsorption, respectively. Surface characterization of NOx and SOx adsorption on SAC confirms the presence of peaks in the FT-IR spectrum. CHNS study verifies that the SAC is suitable for NOx and SOx along with some other C and H containing compounds coming out from stack emission stream from the turbines of a power plant.

Keywords: activated carbon, flue gases, NOx and SOx adsorption, physical activation, power plants

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Authors: A. Chávez, A. Rodríguez, F. Pinzón

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Society is concerned about measures of environmental, economic and social impacts generated in the solid waste disposal. These places of confinement, also known as landfills, are locations where problems of pollution and damage to human health are reduced. They are technically designed and operated, using engineering principles, storing the residue in a small area, compact it to reduce volume and covering them with soil layers. Problems preventing liquid (leachate) and gases produced by the decomposition of organic matter. Despite planning and site selection for disposal, monitoring and control of selected processes, remains the dilemma of the leachate as extreme concentration of pollutants, devastating soil, flora and fauna; aggressive processes requiring priority attention. A biological technology is the activated sludge system, used for tributaries with high pollutant loads. Since transforms biodegradable dissolved and particulate matter into CO2, H2O and sludge; transform suspended and no Settleable solids; change nutrients as nitrogen and phosphorous; and degrades heavy metals. The microorganisms that remove organic matter in the processes are in generally facultative heterotrophic bacteria, forming heterogeneous populations. Is possible to find unicellular fungi, algae, protozoa and rotifers, that process the organic carbon source and oxygen, as well as the nitrogen and phosphorus because are vital for cell synthesis. The mixture of the substrate, in this case sludge leachate, molasses and wastewater is maintained ventilated by mechanical aeration diffusers. Considering as the biological processes work to remove dissolved material (< 45 microns), generating biomass, easily obtained by decantation processes. The design consists of an artificial support and aeration pumps, favoring develop microorganisms (denitrifying) using oxygen (O) with nitrate, resulting in nitrogen (N) in the gas phase. Thus, avoiding negative effects of the presence of ammonia or phosphorus. Overall the activated sludge system includes about 8 hours of hydraulic retention time, which does not prevent the demand for nitrification, which occurs on average in a value of MLSS 3,000 mg/L. The extended aeration works with times greater than 24 hours detention; with ratio of organic load/biomass inventory under 0.1; and average stay time (sludge age) more than 8 days. This project developed a pilot system with sludge leachate from Doña Juana landfill - RSDJ –, located in Bogota, Colombia, where they will be subjected to a process of activated sludge and extended aeration through a sequential Bach reactor - SBR, to be dump in hydric sources, avoiding ecological collapse. The system worked with a dwell time of 8 days, 30 L capacity, mainly by removing values of BOD and COD above 90%, with initial data of 1720 mg/L and 6500 mg/L respectively. Motivating the deliberate nitrification is expected to be possible commercial use diffused aeration systems for sludge leachate from landfills.

Keywords: sludge, landfill, leachate, SBR

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Authors: Sujata Gupta Kedar, J. N. Tulika

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Early researchers suggested that imprisonment had negative psychological and physical effects on its inmates, leading to psychological deterioration. The term “prisons” in the Consensus Statement of WHO is intended to denote, as those institutions which hold people who have been sentenced to a period of imprisonment by the courts for offences against the law. Thus “prisons” if local circumstances justify it, may also be taken to include secure institutions holding on a compulsory basis on any of the following categories of people: remand prisoners; civil prisoners; juvenile detainees; immigration detainees; some categories of mentally disordered patients; asylum seekers; refugees; people detained pending expulsion, deportation, exile, exclusion or any other form of compulsory transfer to other countries or areas of the country; people detained in police cells; and any other compulsorily detained group. Prisons are aimed to cure the criminal and their behavior but their records are not encouraging. Instead the imprisonment affects all prisoners in different way. From withstanding the shock of entry to the new culture, which is very different from their own, prisoners must try to determine how to spend the time in prison, since the hours appears to be endless in prisons. There is also the fear of deterioration. This article aims to provide an overview of the psychological well being of female prisoners in the prison environment in five areas- satisfaction, efficiency, sociability, mental health and interpersonal relations. Research was done on two different types of imprisonment- under trial prisoner and convict. Total sample included 22 female prisoners of Nagaon Special Jail of Assam. The instrument used for the study was based on Psychological Well Being Scale. Statistical analysis was done with t-test and one way anova test. The result demonstrated that there is no significant difference in the psychological wellbeing of female prisoners in the prison and that there is no significant difference in the psychological well being of different types of female prisoners involved in different crimes but there is significant difference in the mental health of the female prisoners in prison.

Keywords: psychological effect, female prisoners, prison, well being of prisoners

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Authors: Carlos Tapia Cortez, Serkan Saydam, Jeff Coulton, Claude Sammut

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Strategic mineral commodities (SMC) both energetic and metals have long been fundamental for human beings. There is a strong and long-run relation between the mineral resources industry and society's evolution, with the provision of primary raw materials, becoming one of the most significant drivers of economic growth. Due to mineral resources’ relevance for the entire economy and society, an understanding of the SMC market behaviour to simulate price fluctuations has become crucial for governments and firms. For any human activity, SMC price fluctuations are affected by economic, geopolitical, environmental, technological and psychological issues, where cognition has a major role. Cognition is defined as the capacity to store information in memory, processing and decision making for problem-solving or human adaptation. Thus, it has a significant role in those systems that exhibit dynamic equilibrium through time, such as economic growth. Cognition allows not only understanding past behaviours and trends in SCM markets but also supports future expectations of demand/supply levels and prices, although speculations are unavoidable. Technological developments may also be defined as a cognitive system. Since the Industrial Revolution, technological developments have had a significant influence on SMC production costs and prices, likewise allowing co-integration between commodities and market locations. It suggests a close relation between structural breaks, technology and prices evolution. SCM prices forecasting have been commonly addressed by econometrics and Gaussian-probabilistic models. Econometrics models may incorporate the relationship between variables; however, they are statics that leads to an incomplete approach of prices evolution through time. Gaussian-probabilistic models may evolve through time; however, price fluctuations are addressed by the assumption of random behaviour and normal distribution which seems to be far from the real behaviour of both market and prices. Random fluctuation ignores the evolution of market events and the technical and temporal relation between variables, giving the illusion of controlled future events. Normal distribution underestimates price fluctuations by using restricted ranges, curtailing decisions making into a pre-established space. A proper understanding of SMC's price dynamics taking into account the historical-cognitive relation between economic, technological and psychological factors over time is fundamental in attempting to simulate prices. The aim of this paper is to discuss the SMC market cognition hypothesis and empirically demonstrate its dynamic-cognitive capacity. Three of the largest and traded SMC's: oil, copper and gold, will be assessed to examine the economic, technological and psychological cognition respectively.

Keywords: commodity price simulation, commodity price uncertainties, dynamic-cognition, dynamic systems

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Authors: M. I. Ribah, M. Jibir, Y. A. Bashar, S. S. Manga

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Food safety is a significant and growing public health problem in the world and Nigeria as a developing country, since food-borne diseases are important contributors to the huge burden of sickness and death of humans. In Nigeria, traditional ready-to-eat meat products (RTE-MPs) like balangu, tsire, guru and dried meat products like kilishi, dambun nama, banda, were reported to be highly appreciated because of their eating qualities. The consumption of these products was considered as safe due to the treatments that are usually involved during their production process. However, during processing and handling, the products could be contaminated by pathogens that could cause food poisoning. Therefore, a hazard identification for pathogenic bacteria on some traditional RTE-MPs was conducted in Kebbi and Sokoto States, Nigeria. A total of 116 RTE-MPs (balangu-38, kilishi-39 and tsire-39) samples were obtained from retail outlets and analyzed using standard cultural microbiological procedures in general and selective enrichment media to isolate the target pathogens. A six-fold serial dilution was prepared and using the pour plating method, colonies were counted. Serial dilutions were selected based on the prepared pre-labeled Petri dishes for each sample. A volume of 10-12 ml of molten Nutrient agar cooled to 42-45°C was poured into each Petri dish and 1 ml each from dilutions of 102, 104 and 106 for every sample was respectively poured on a pre-labeled Petri plate after which colonies were counted. The isolated pathogens were identified and confirmed after series of biochemical tests. Frequencies and percentages were used to describe the presence of pathogens. The General Linear Model was used to analyze data on pathogen presence according to RTE-MPs and means were separated using the Tukey test at 0.05 confidence level. Of the 116 RTE-MPs samples collected, 35 (30.17%) samples were found to be contaminated with some tested pathogens. Prevalence results showed that Escherichia coli, salmonella and Staphylococcus aureus were present in the samples. Mean total bacterial count was 23.82×106 cfu/g. The frequency of individual pathogens isolated was; Staphylococcus aureus 18 (15.51%), Escherichia coli 12 (10.34%) and Salmonella 5 (4.31%). Also, among the RTE-MPs tested, the total bacterial counts were found to differ significantly (P < 0.05), with 1.81, 2.41 and 2.9×104 cfu/g for tsire, kilishi, and balangu, respectively. The study concluded that the presence of pathogenic bacteria in balangu could pose grave health risks to consumers, and hence, recommended good manufacturing practices in the production of balangu to improve the products’ safety.

Keywords: ready-to-eat meat products, retail outlets, public health, safety assessment

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Authors: Hassan Mohammad Alkomy, Hesham Elkaranshawy, Ahmed Ibrahim Ashour, Khaled Tawfik Mohamed

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For a rigid body sliding on a rough surface, a range of uncertainty or non-uniqueness of solution could be found, which is termed: Painlevé paradox. Painlevé paradox is the reason of a wide range of bouncing motion, observed during sliding of robotic manipulators on rough surfaces. In this research work, the existence of the paradox zone during the sliding motion of a two-link (P-R) robotic manipulator with a unilateral constraint is investigated. Parametric study is performed to investigate the effect of friction, link-length ratio, total height and link-mass ratio on the paradox zone.

Keywords: dynamical system, friction, multibody system, painlevé paradox, robotic systems, sliding robots, unilateral constraint

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Authors: Reza Hadjiaghaie Vafaie, Aysan Madanpasandi, Behrooz Zare Desari, Seyedmohammad Mousavi

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High lamination in microchannel is one of the main challenges in on-chip components like micro total analyzer systems and lab-on-a-chips. Electro-osmotic force is highly effective in chip-scale. This research proposes a microfluidic-based micropump for low ionic strength solutions. Narrow microchannels are designed to generate an efficient electroosmotic flow near the walls. Microelectrodes are embedded in the lateral sides and actuated by low electric potential to generate pumping effect inside the channel. Based on the simulation study, the fluid velocity increases by increasing the electric potential amplitude. We achieve a net flow velocity of 100 µm/s, by applying +/- 2 V to the electrode structures. Our proposed low voltage design is of interest in conventional lab-on-a-chip applications.

Keywords: integration, electrokinetic, on-chip, fluid pumping, microfluidic

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Authors: Charawee Butbumrung

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This research aim to study the financial service of the Thailand financial Institution, second is to identify "best practices" offered by four financial institutions, namely, Kasikornthai Bank, Bangkok Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, and Thanachart Bank. In-depth interviews with managers of financial institution and borrowers reveal best practices from each financial institution. Close monitoring of and a close relationship with borrowers appear to be important for early detection of any problem. Another aspect that may be important is building up loyalty and developing reliability among members. A close and informal relationship with borrowers may also help in monitoring and early detection of problems that may arise in non-repayment of loans. Other factors that may be considered important to the success of a financial service scheme are cooperation and coordination among various agencies that provide additional support to borrowers. Indirectly, these support systems contribute to the success of a SME in Thailand.

Keywords: best practices, financial service, financial institution, SME in Thailand

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Authors: Nilson Barbieri, Bruno Matos Martins, Gabriel de Sant'Anna Vitor Barbieri

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In more complex systems, such as automotive gearbox, a rigorous treatment of the data is necessary because there are several moving parts (gears, bearings, shafts, etc.), and in this way, there are several possible sources of errors and also noise. The basic objective of this work is the detection of damage in automotive gearbox. The detection methods used are the wavelet method, the bispectrum; advanced filtering techniques (selective filtering) of vibrational signals and mathematical morphology. Gearbox vibration tests were performed (gearboxes in good condition and with defects) of a production line of a large vehicle assembler. The vibration signals are obtained using five accelerometers in different positions of the sample. The results obtained using the kurtosis, bispectrum, wavelet and mathematical morphology showed that it is possible to identify the existence of defects in automotive gearboxes.

Keywords: automotive gearbox, mathematical morphology, wavelet, bispectrum

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Authors: Sowmiyaa V. S., Tiruvengala Padma, Dhanasekaran B.

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Due to urbanization, traffic congestion, air pollution and fuel consumption underground metros are constructed in urban cities nowadays. These metros reduce the commutation time and makes the daily transportation in urban cities hassle free. To construct the underground metros deep excavations are to be carried out. These excavations should be supported by an appropriate earth retaining structures to provide stability and to prevent deformation failures. The failure of deep excavations is catastrophic and hence appropriate caution need to be carried out during design and construction stages. This paper covers the construction aspects, equipment, quality control, design aspects of one of the earth retaining systems the Diaphragm Walls.

Keywords: underground metros, diaphragm wall, quality control of diaphragm wall, design aspects of diaphragm wall

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Authors: Mohammad Ghavami, Reza S. Dilmaghani

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This paper presents an adaptive framework for modelling financial markets using equity risk premiums, risk free rates and volatilities. The recorded economic factors are initially used to train four adaptive filters for a certain limited period of time in the past. Once the systems are trained, the adjusted coefficients are used for modelling and prediction of an important financial market index. Two different approaches based on least mean squares (LMS) and recursive least squares (RLS) algorithms are investigated. Performance analysis of each method in terms of the mean squared error (MSE) is presented and the results are discussed. Computer simulations carried out using recorded data show MSEs of 4% and 3.4% for the next month prediction using LMS and RLS adaptive algorithms, respectively. In terms of twelve months prediction, RLS method shows a better tendency estimation compared to the LMS algorithm.

Keywords: adaptive methods, LSE, MSE, prediction of financial Markets

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Authors: Iyad Muslih, Azzah Alkhalailah, Ali Merdji

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Photovoltaic efficiency is highly affected by dust accumulation; the dust particles prevent direct solar radiation from reaching the panel surface; therefore a reduction in output power will occur. A study of dust and soiling accumulation effect on the output power of PV panels was conducted for different periods of time from May to October in three countries of the MENA region, Jordan, Egypt, and Algeria, under local weather conditions. This study leads to build a more realistic equation to estimate the power reduction as a function of time. This logarithmic function shows the high reduction in power in the first days with 10% reduction in output power compared to the reference system, where it reaches a steady state value after 60 days to reach a maximum value of 30%.

Keywords: solar energy, PV system, soiling, MENA

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Authors: Adnan H. M. Al-Helali, Hamza A. Ali

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Growth of censorship and pervasive monitoring on the Internet, Steganography arises as a new means of achieving secret communication. Steganography is the art and science of embedding information within electronic media used by common applications and systems. Generally, hiding information of multimedia within images will change some of their properties that may introduce few degradation or unusual characteristics. This paper presents a new image steganography approach for hiding information of multimedia (images, text, and audio) using generated Mandelbrot Fractal image as a cover. The proposed technique has been extensively tested with different images. The results show that the method is a very secure means of hiding and retrieving steganographic information. Experimental results demonstrate that an effective improvement in the values of the Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), Mean Square Error (MSE), Normalized Cross Correlation (NCC) and Image Fidelity (IF) over the previous techniques.

Keywords: fractal image, information hiding, Mandelbrot et fractal, steganography

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Authors: Boukhris Lahouari, Bouchetara Mostefa

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The active safety of a vehicle is mainly influenced by the properties of the installed braking system. With the increase in road traffic density and travel speeds, increasingly stringent requirements are placed on the vehicle's behaviour during braking. The achievable decelerations are limited by the physical aspect characterized by the coefficient of friction between the tires and the ground. As a result, it follows that an optimized distribution of braking forces becomes necessary for a better use of friction coefficients. This objective could only be achieved if sufficient knowledge is available on the theory of vehicle dynamics during braking and on current standards for the approval of braking systems. This will facilitate the development of a braking force calculation algorithm that will enable an optimized distribution of braking forces to be achieved. Operating safety is conditioned by the requirements of efficiency, progressiveness, regularity or fidelity of a braking system without obviously neglecting the recommendations imposed by the legislator.

Keywords: brake force distribution, distribution diagram, friction coefficient, brake by wire

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Authors: Carlos Roberto Valêncio, Fábio Renato de Almeida, Thatiane Kawabata, Leandro Alves Neves, Julio Cesar Momente, Mario Luiz Tronco, Angelo Cesar Colombini

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By running transactions under the Snapshot isolation we can achieve a good level of concurrency, specially in databases with high-intensive read workloads. However, Snapshot is not immune to all the problems that arise from competing transactions and therefore no serialization warranty exists. We propose in this paper a technique to obtain data consistency with Snapshot by using some special triggers that we named Daemon Triggers. Besides keeping the benefits of the Snapshot isolation, the technique is specially useful for those database systems that do not have an isolation level that ensures serializability, like Firebird and Oracle. We describe all the anomalies that might arise when using the Snapshot isolation and show how to preclude them with Daemon Triggers. Based on the methodology presented here, it is also proposed the creation of a new isolation level: Daemon Snapshot.

Keywords: data consistency, serialization, snapshot, isolation

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Authors: Ranjeet Kumar, Pravin Suryakantrao Deshmukh, Sonal Sharma, Basudev Banerjee

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With the tremendous increase in exposure to radiofrequency microwaves emitted by mobile phones, globally public awareness has grown with regard to the potential health hazards of microwaves on the nervous system in the brain. India alone has more than one billion mobile users out of 4.3 billion globally. Our studies have suggested that radio frequency able to affect neuronal alterations in the brain, and hence, affecting cognitive behaviour. However, adverse effect of low-intensity microwave exposure with endoplasmic reticulum stress and autophagy has not been evaluated yet. In this study, we explore whether low-intensity microwave induces endoplasmic reticulum stress and autophagy with varying frequency and time duration in Wistar rat. Ninety-six male Wistar rat were divided into 12 groups of 8 rats each. We studied at 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, and 2450 MHz frequency with reference to sham-exposed group. At the end of the exposure, the rats were sacrificed to collect brain tissue and expression of CHOP, ATF-4, XBP-1, Bcl-2, Bax, LC3 and Atg-4 gene was analysed by real-time PCR. Significant fold change (p < 0.05) of gene expression was found in all groups of 1800 MHz and 2450 MHz exposure group in comparison to sham exposure group. In conclusion, the microwave exposure able to induce ER stress and modulate autophagy. ER (endoplasmic reticulum) stress and autophagy vary with increasing frequency as well as the duration of exposure. Our results suggested that microwave exposure is harmful to neuronal health as it induces ER stress and hampers autophagy in neuron cells and thereby increasing the neuron degeneration which impairs cognitive behaviour of experimental animals.

Keywords: autophagy, ER stress, microwave, nervous system, rat

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Authors: Khairul Abid Awang

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Happiness and life satisfaction are the vital components in assessing the well-being of the societies and their social progress. These components varies and changes within communities and across time. Thus, due to low level of happiness and life satisfaction, it might affect mental health status psychologically and generally disrupt the health pattern of the individual. Hence, this present study aims to identify the happiness determinants, assessing the happiness and life satisfaction level, as well as examine the relation between happiness among Kampung Jaya Bakti adult community. Quantitative and cross-sectional study with total of 100 observations of 18 years old and above was participated in this study. The study was done in a semi-rural village which is geocentric towards river that branched from South East Asia Sea. Several happiness and life satisfaction instruments was used, inclusive of Individual Determinants of Happiness Scale (IDoHS) that had been developed in this study, in order to identify the determinants of happiness in the area based on the listed determinants. The listed determinants in IDoHS are: i) Daily activities. ii) Adaptation. iii) Goals. iv) Life Events. v) Living condition. vi) Self-confidence. vii) Personality traits. viii) Religion. The results revealed that 98% of the respondents agreed that the listed determinants in IDoHS are statistically significant in determining the happiness. The happiness level revealed that 71 percent (%) of the respondents are ‘very happy’, followed by 26% (‘moderately happy’) and 3% (‘neutral’), while life satisfaction level revealed that 70% of the respondents are ‘very highly satisfied’, followed by 29% (‘highly satisfied’) and 1% (‘moderately satisfied’). Pearson Correlation (Pearson’s r) shows that; happiness determinants listed in IDoHS are affecting happiness level (Pearson’s r: .514, p < 0.01) and life satisfaction level (Pearson’s r: .504, p < 0.01) respectively, as well as happiness that are statistically significant in affecting life satisfaction (Pearson’s r: .653, p < 0.01; Pearson’s r; .546, p < 0.01). It is concluded that the listed determinants in IDoHS are the determinants that affecting happiness and it is also noted that happiness are affecting life satisfaction and vice versa.

Keywords: adult community, determinants, happiness, life satisfaction, subjective well-being

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Authors: Muna Tabuni

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The paper contains an investigation of the notion of Q algebras. A brief introduction to quantum mechanics is given, in that systems the state defined by a vector in a complex vector space H which have Hermitian inner product property. H may be finite or infinite-dimensional. In quantum mechanics, operators must be hermitian. These facts are saved by Lie algebra operators but not by those of quantum algebras. A Hilbert space H consists of a set of vectors and a set of scalars. Lie group is a differentiable topological space with group laws given by differentiable maps. A Lie algebra has been introduced. Q-algebra has been defined. A brief introduction to BCI-algebra is given. A BCI sub algebra is introduced. A brief introduction to BCK=BCH-algebra is given. Every BCI-algebra is a BCH-algebra. Homomorphism maps meanings are introduced. Homomorphism maps between two BCK algebras are defined. The mathematical formulations of quantum mechanics can be expressed using the theory of unitary group representations. A generalization of Q algebras has been introduced, and their properties have been considered. The Q- quantum algebra has been studied, and various examples have been given.

Keywords: Q-algebras, BCI, BCK, BCH-algebra, quantum mechanics

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Authors: Fareena Alladin

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In the Caribbean, issues of food security, health and taste are intricately linked, seen most clearly in the increasing incidence of lifestyle diseases among children coupled with a taste for high calorie and Westernized diets. In order to fully appreciate this link, the role of nutrition environments must be examined. To this end, the present study incorporates tenets of Bourdieu’s social constructivist theory with the Community Nutrition Environment Model. The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between availability of and access to healthy/unhealthy foods within nutrition environments, namely the household and school, and the development of taste preferences for healthy/unhealthy foods among primary school children in a selected educational district in Trinidad and Tobago. A cross-sectional survey of 400 children between the ages of 9 and 11 years was conducted. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 24. Results indicated that availability of healthy food at home was positively correlated with preference for vegetables, and negatively correlated with preference for salty snacks and fast food. The availability of unhealthy food within the home was found to be negatively correlated with preference for vegetables and positively correlated with preference for salty snacks. Access to unhealthy foods at school had a positive correlation with preference for fast food. These findings highlight the role of the food environment in shaping taste preferences, and point to the need for interrogating the centrality of food security concerns in emerging health concerns of Caribbean countries. Such interrogations are a necessary part of the development of research agendas, and policy formulation and implementation.

Keywords: food security, nutrition environment, taste preference, Trinidad and Tobago

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Authors: Wanchalerm Patanacharoenwong, Panaya Sudta, Prachya Bumrungkun

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The paper focuses on the development of a system that combines Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and deep learning algorithms for anomaly detection in residential Electric Vehicle (EV) charging in smart cities. With the increasing number of EVs, ensuring efficient and reliable charging systems has become crucial. The aim of this research is to develop an integrated IoT and deep learning system for detecting anomalies in residential EV charging and enhancing EV load profiling and event detection in smart cities. This approach utilizes IoT devices equipped with infrared cameras to collect thermal images and household EV charging profiles from the database of Thailand utility, subsequently transmitting this data to a cloud database for comprehensive analysis. The methodology includes the use of advanced deep learning techniques such as Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) algorithms. IoT devices equipped with infrared cameras are used to collect thermal images and EV charging profiles. The data is transmitted to a cloud database for comprehensive analysis. The researchers also utilize feature-based Gaussian mixture models for EV load profiling and event detection. Moreover, the research findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed system in detecting anomalies and critical profiles in EV charging behavior. The system provides timely alarms to users regarding potential issues and categorizes the severity of detected problems based on a health index for each charging device. The system also outperforms existing models in event detection accuracy. This research contributes to the field by showcasing the potential of integrating IoT and deep learning techniques in managing residential EV charging in smart cities. The system ensures operational safety and efficiency while also promoting sustainable energy management. The data is collected using IoT devices equipped with infrared cameras and is stored in a cloud database for analysis. The collected data is then analyzed using RNN, LSTM, and feature-based Gaussian mixture models. The approach includes both EV load profiling and event detection, utilizing a feature-based Gaussian mixture model. This comprehensive method aids in identifying unique power consumption patterns among EV owners and outperforms existing models in event detection accuracy. In summary, the research concludes that integrating IoT and deep learning techniques can effectively detect anomalies in residential EV charging and enhance EV load profiling and event detection accuracy. The developed system ensures operational safety and efficiency, contributing to sustainable energy management in smart cities.

Keywords: cloud computing framework, recurrent neural networks, long short-term memory, Iot, EV charging, smart grids

Procedia PDF Downloads 47

Authors: Alexandra Shipley

Abstract:

Background: Undergraduate paediatric teaching must overcome two major challenges: 1) balancing patient safety with active student engagement and 2) exposing students to a comprehensive range of pathologies within a relatively short clinical placement. Whilst lectures and shadowing on paediatric wards constitute the mainstay of learning, Simulation and Virtual Reality (VR) are emerging as effective teaching tools, which - immune to the unpredictability and seasonal variation of hospital presentations - could expose students to the entire syllabus more reliably, efficiently, and independently. We aim to evaluate the potential utility of Simulation and VR in addressing gaps within the traditional paediatric curriculum from the perspective of medical students. Summary of Work: Exposure to and perceived utility of various learning opportunities within the Paediatric and Emergency Medicine courses were assessed through a questionnaire completed by 5th year medical students (n=23). Summary of Results: Students reported limited exposure to several common acute paediatric presentations, such as bronchiolitis (41%), croup (32%) or pneumonia (14%), and to clinical emergencies, including cardiac/respiratory arrests or trauma calls (27%). Across all conditions, average self-reported confidence in assessment and management to the level expected of an FY1 is greater amongst those who observed at least one case (e.g. 7.6/10 compared with 3.6/10 for croup). Students rated exposure through Simulation or VR to be of similar utility to witnessing a clinical scenario on the ward. In free text responses, students unanimously favoured being ‘challenged’ through ‘hands-on’ patient interaction over passive shadowing, where it is ‘easy to zone out.’ In recognition of the fact that such independence is only appropriate in certain clinical situations, many students reported wanting more Simulation and VR teaching. Importantly, students raised the necessity of ‘proper debriefs’ after these sessions to maximise educational value. Discussion and Conclusion: Our questionnaire elicited several student-perceived challenges in paediatric education, including incomplete exposure to common pathologies and limited opportunities for active involvement in patient care. Indeed, these experiences seem to be important predictors of confidence. Quantitative and qualitative feedback suggests that VR and Simulation satisfy students’ self-reported appetite for independent engagement with authentic clinical scenarios. Take-aways: Our findings endorse further development of VR and Simulation as high-yield adjuncts to paediatric education.

Keywords: paediatric emergency education, simulation, virtual reality, medical education

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Authors: Salwa Enneifer

Abstract:

The research is intended to investigate Tunisian students’ own perception of the difficulties they encounter in the writing task. To achieve this objective, a questionnaire was administered to students enrolled in the ‘Faculty of Letters Arts and Humanities’ in Kairouan, in Tunisia. Students were classified into three groups: first-, second-, and third-year students. The researcher used 120 questionnaires filled in by the students as data for this study; moreover, 30 students participated in a semi-structured interview to complete the data. The questionnaire results revealed that Tunisian EFL students faced spelling and grammar difficulties. ANOVA also revealed that the first-year students did not recognise that Arabic and English greatly differ in their respective punctuation systems. The second-year class, however, was fully aware of this difference. Additionally, the interview shed light on other aspects or different difficulties experienced by students in writing: a cruel ‘lack of vocabulary’, Arabic language interference, the organisation of the essay and especially the academic essay, and difficulty with writing an argumentative essay.

Keywords: difficulties, writing, Tunisian, EFL students

Procedia PDF Downloads 227